


Time is Not Part of the Test

by Pineflower



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-12 09:06:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10487220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pineflower/pseuds/Pineflower
Summary: A crack in Chells portal gun sends her through to the last place she expected to land. Stuck in Aperture in its early days, Chell has to find her way back to the year she's from or risk fading away.





	

Chell was almost untouchable when she got into a testing track.

In these tests, one misstep would cost her life, so every portal was placed with precision to avoid bullet fire. Acid pits were an issue, but could be worked around. Her persistence to get through each test made things go by in a speedy fashion.

Jumping through one of the rifts she had placed on a wall, Chell flew through the air towards a tilted panel.  Through the rush of air, a cold voice echoed out through the chamber, sounding mildly irritated.

_“Here you go again. I’ve told you before that while you may be a killing machine, you’re not one of my birds. Try as you may, flying is not an option.”_

Rolling her eyes, Chell shot a portal down at the approaching panel. Orange splashed onto it and she shot through, only to let out a startled hiss at the sight of a fast approaching wall. Her second, blue portal hadn’t been placed properly and flung her directly into a panel. Instinct to not crash kicked in and Chells arm flew up, using the portal gun to protect her from the collision.

Slamming into it, the piece of machinery in her hand let out a large cracking noise before the force of the impact shot her back and down to a platform below. With barely enough time to regain her balance, Chell landed safely on her feet and slowly slid to the ground to take a moment.

_“What was that.”_

GLaDOS’s voice was not friendly. Unlike the more playful taunt from just a moment ago, this held no humor. Just icy fire. Chell, seeing the large crack in the protective shell of the gun, quickly moved it from the view of the camera, waving a hand to signal that it was nothing.

_“I know what I heard and it sounded like a crack.”_

The test subject shook her head and stood back up slowly. The gun was kept out of view, but not held in a way to make it obvious something had happened when she crashed. An open hand on her chest, thumb touching it, was signed, saying it was fine.

_“…Alright Chell, but if I find out you have broken any of my testing apparatus, you will regret existing.”_

Sure I will. Chell scoffed and shook the AI’s words off, moving to finish the test. While the gun didn’t look too bad, there was a massive crack in the center. From the looks of it, it was still holding itself together, but Chell knew it would be best to hurry it up. If the gun was to break, things would not be easy. Not in the test track or from GLaDOS. That and who knew what would happen if the thing completely cracked open.

Breaking into a run, she got back to where she had been and redid the jump. Once nailing it, the test was a piece of cake. Just a couple of buttons, cubes that needed to be fetched, and a final jump over to the exit door. A walk in the park. The condition of the gun wasn’t bothering Chell too badly and by the time she reached the main jump to the end, the gun was barely a priority. It would be fine. Just a small crack.

It was a jump using a launching pad and needing two portals to make it across. Taking a running start, she jumped onto the plate and went flying towards the panels that would take her to the end. One portal had already been placed and the other one just needed to be timed correctly…

She shot, expecting the sight of a blue portal to be immediate, but nothing appeared on the approaching wall. Quickly, she tried again, only having a small window of time before she hit the wall. This time though, she was above acid. There was no room for any mistakes. Yet the portal gun didn’t fire and instead seemed to be overheating. A small whirring noise was coming from it and nothing was shooting. Smashing the button, Chell prepared to smash into the panel. Before she could make contact though, the gun overload to the point that it finally expelled a portal, but the force of the sudden shot made her lose grip on the gun and be flung painfully through the portal.

_“Chell?! What in the name of Cave Johnson is going on in there?! CHELL!”_

GLaDOS’s voice oddly faded into the distance as she was shot through. The portal had expelled her into some dark and cluttered room, making her land in a painful manner due to objects she couldn’t see. The crash left a ringing noise in both her ears and around the room. Chell only took a second to ponder where she was before seeing a portal on the wall and scrambling to her feet to bolt for it. It was getting fuzzy and looked like it was about to vanish. There was no time to lose. With one final leap, she tried to make it through the portal, but she only hit the wall where it had been.

The portal was gone…

so where was she?

Stepping in the darkness, she tried to feel her way around. Occasionally her hands would brush against things that felt like the sticks on cleaning tools. Maybe she accidently shot into an old janitors closet. She eventually found a doorknob and she stood there for just a moment. Without her portal gun, she felt naked and venerable to anything beyond the door, but she didn’t plan on staying in place.

Without any more hesitation, Chell pushed the door open, squinting in the sudden light that poured in. Yet she wasn’t greeted with the white halls of newer Aperture. Instead, she was in an older hallway that was covered in posters that advertised repulsion gel and shower curtains. The floor, while a bit dirty, held no dust. The distant sounds of running machinery and talking people echoed from down to the right. Slowly, Chell exited the doorway and looked around in a confused manner. It was a hallway she had been through once, when she was climbing the old testing shaft to get back to new Aperture. She was in the lower section. Yet the whole area seemed new, as if it had been built recently.

_“Hey you!”_

An oddly familiar voice echoed out and Chell jumped, preparing to bolt if anyone approached her. Yet no one was nearby. Confusion grew and she started walking, halting again as the voice snapped out again.

_“Yes, I was talking to you Miss Orange Jumpsuit. This area is off limits to any testing subjects and I’m gonna tell you now. You are around 2 months too early for tests in this section. I haven’t even made my prerecorded messages for these tests. So if you would be so kind as to go down the hall to your right and…we should be able to find you some other tests. Oh, instead of the gel testing, you could try to go after those mantis men! We’ve ran out of people who are willing to do that test so you’ll have to do!”_

Chell paled and looked around, seeing a bulky camera sitting beside a speaker on the wall nearby. There was only one person who that voice could ever belong to and it was terrifying that she was hearing it firsthand. Terrifying and confusing.

Cave Johnson. CEO of Aperture Science.


End file.
